Easter Food To Get You In The Mood ;-)

Fill a large roasting tin with 2 aubergines, 3 courgettes, 2 red onions, 2 red peppers, a bulb of whole garlic cloves, 3 tins of tomatoes, a tin of tomato puree, about a third of a bottle of red wine, and several generous glugs of olive oil. Season, stir it around and roast in a hot oven until the vegetables are soft, caramelised and most of the liquid has evaporated. Be prepared to wait about two hours for this.
When it is just about done, you can stick a few veggie sausages on top and cook them for a bit. When you know you have about 10 minutes to go, put slices of mozzarella on top too.
To prepare the garlic and chilli bread, mix garlic puree (two generous spoonfuls please) into a block of soft butter. Chop atleast 4 red chillies finely and mix them in. Daub the butter generously into the slits in the bread. Wrap it in foil and give it a good 20 minutes.
Serve with pasta and grate parmesan on top.

Spaghetti Carbonara

This is one of those things which is always pretty revolting, tasteless and gloopy if you buy a ready made version from the supermarket, but is bloody fantastic if you make it yourself. Yummy.

I made this version, for two people. Begin by heating a blob of olive oil in a small pan. If you have the inclination, fry some chopped garlic in the oil first, and remove and chuck it away when it is brown. It makes the oil all garlicky. Then add some chopped bacon or pancetta, and fry it until done. A further optional step here is then to add a generous splash of white wine, and let it boil and bubble away. It leaves another nice flavour behind.

Meanwhile, cook your spaghetti as usual. While it is cooking, get a bowl and mix in it three egg yolks, about half a cup of cream, salt and pepper, and about a handful of grated parmesan cheese. When the spag is done, drain it quick and return to the hot pan, off the heat. Chuck in the bacon and the oil it was sizzling in. Waste no time in adding the egg yolk, cream and cheese mixture. Stir and mix it well, and the heat in the pan should be enough for the sauce to cook and smoothly coat each strand of spaghetti, without overcooking and turning into scrambled egg. Eat it with more cheese and perhaps some black pepper on top. Heaven.

Potato Dauphinoise

Oh blimey. Where have you been all my life? This was genuinely my first casual attempt at this dish, and it was fab. I set the oven to start cooking it before I got in from work, so I was greeted by this potatoey, creamy, garlic-scented waft, as I walked in the door.

Everyone seems to cook this at a different temperature; I did it at 150c, or gas mark 2. I cut 4 medium potatoes into thin slices and put them into the dish, adding salt and pepper over each layer. I then poured about half a pint of a blend of milk and cream, with a teaspoon of garlic paste mixed in, over it all. It was cooked after an hour and 15 minutes.

Cheese is an obvious possibility and would be very nice, but I am absolutely convinced it is not necessary.

Roasted Trout with a Sundried Tomato & Rosemary Crust

Begin with a big fresh trout fillet, and pick out any bones. In a bowl, mix some fresh breadcrumbs, a couple of dollops of sundried tomato paste, and some finely chopped rosemary. Use this to top the fish, then roast it quickly in a hot oven.

Nigella's Greek Lamb Stew with Pasta, and Feta and Oregano Topping

My version did differ in some ways: 1) I used red wine, not white. 2) I left the carrots in, because I like them .. when this was done on Nigella Bites, she fished them out. 3) I added cinnamon because I like it, in Greek dishes. 4) I halved the recipe.

I tried the completely unauthentic but delicious crumbled feta and fresh oregano mixture as a topping - do not consider eating this without it! What a lovely bowlful of steaming, meaty, winey, herby, pastary, cheesey JOY this made.

Traditional English Breakfast, on a Winter Holiday

A dozen raw eggs, in a pan, prior to the addition of salt, pepper, a dash of milk and a nob of butter, waiting to be slowly and softly scrambled. However, if I told you this was alien giant yellow frog spawn, you could believe it, couldn't you.
We also had bits of toast with it, but fried bread is a great possibility. Then we had coffee, croissants and jam for afters. Please note that as my holiday activities centred around walking, cycling and swimming, this level of Famous Five style calorie intake was simply a nourishing, necessary evil.

Banoffee Sundaes

It's hard to get a photo which does these justice, because all the goodness is buried deep below the cream and you have dig down to get it ...
Begin with any kind of cake; plain madeira is ok but a cake on a toffee or fudgey theme is better. Add some toffee or fudge sauce, then slices of banana. Sprinkle over some chocolate buttons. Perhaps some chocolate sauce, at any stage, if you prefer.
When you have layered cake, banana and toffee / fudge in satisfactory proportions, pile on some vanilla ice cream. Finally, big dollops of cream, and shards from a broken flake bar.